Hymn: "God of Our Fathers"

[pstr1bill]

I love the improv, out of tune or not. Thanks for the effort to record.

George William Warren Jr. (greatgrandson)

[theremin137]

@pstr1bill Thank you very much! What an honor to know that the great grandson of the composer of this stirring hymn has visited my YouTube channel.

[sweetmelodymusicman5]

our band played this at our district convention

[sweetmelodymusicman5]

i love this song we played this in our district convention

[sweetmelodymusicman5]

our band played this song in the bahamas district convention

[hpa2005]

the Army Hymn if I'm not mistaken

[camedon]

I think you did an excellent job. I have listened to this many times over and I must tell you, it is so very enjoyable. I hope you plan to post most of your work.

[iluvSpectacular011]

Where can i find a recording of this on youtube.... i search it on youtube but the bands that played it SUCKS!!!!! I love this music!!

[Organist1980]

Well warm weather tuning or not- you really should write that improv. out...it is very Virgil Fox-esque :-)

[theremin137]

"Some ranks are [were] out of tune." I recorded most of these videos in late summer / early autumn, in late afternoon / early evening, when the temperature in the organ loft usually was 80 degrees or hotter. Thus, tuning issues abounded. This problem has been addressed with restoration of the glorious Christus Rex window - which included sealing the window in a 'sandwich' of UV-filtering material.

[Organist1980]

Gorgeous Improvisation Mr. Lester. Out of curiosity, does the organ have midi? It seems that either there is a wind pressure issue or some ranks are out of tune. Either way, your improvisation is intriguing!

[katietillinghastde]

I love this hymn!

[Reesman95]

5 stars!!!

Heres a tip for playing it in church: Don't do the fanfare in the intro, because 1/3 of the congregation starts singing.

[Jacobre156]

@Reesman95 To solve that problem, I use the Trumpet en Chamade stop on my church's organ. It startles the congregation so much that they forget the hymn and look up at the loft to see what happened...haha...

[theremin137]

The hymn appears in nearly every "traditional" Protestant hymnal - the modulation and improvisation you hear on the last verse in this video was just that - an improvisation and not written down anywhere.

[JWall416]

@theremin137 "nearly every "traditional" Protestant hymnal" --except, for some idiotic reason, the new Lutheran ELW. Very unfortunate, all things considered... I've always loved this hymn, and this is a very good arrangement.

[theremin137]

@JWall416 - Yes, that's another unfortunate omission. OTOH, most of those awful Paul Bunjes "reharmonizations" were thrown out, some of which were difficult to play and nearly impossible to sing and most were NOT improvements on the originals. Another failed attempt to "reinvent the wheel."

[organ1029]

Where can I find a free score?

[Reesman95]

most hymnals...